North Sea Martial Arts Warrior - Chapter 27

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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27. Lord of the Forbidden Realm

A quarter of an hour had passed since Airak and his companions left Danhon Valley.
Where Asura’s Ten-Thousand Curve Blade had swept through, only shattered ice fragments and blood remained.
The bodies of Snow Maidens lay scattered in every direction. Some were split cleanly in half; others had been reduced to powder and scattered across the ground. Blood had frozen solid, forming dark crimson crystals.
Whoosh!
Wind swept across the valley—the bone-cutting gale peculiar to Danhon Valley—tousling the hair of the corpses.
Into that place, where a silence deeper than death had settled, a black shadow seeped through.
Slip.
The shadow moved without sound. No footfall, no breath. As if darkness itself had taken form.
Latent Shadow.
An art of concealment transmitted directly by the Lord of the Forbidden Realm. Not the hiding of one’s body within shadow, but the becoming of shadow itself—a martial skill that even the Snow Maidens could not perceive.
The shadow surveyed all of Danhon Valley from atop the precipice.
The arrangement of corpses. The flow of blood. The direction of ice fragments.
Everything pointed toward a single location: where Airak had stood.
‘A radius of ten paces.’
The shadow’s eyes narrowed.
‘Everything within this range froze simultaneously.’
It examined the bodies of the Snow Maidens one by one.
The posture of death was identical in all of them. Not frozen mid-motion, but frozen in stillness before death took them.
The shadow came to a halt before Binghua’s corpse.
Eyes wide with shock, chest pierced with a hole. For the final death of an assassination master who once ruled the Northern Sea, it was strangely pathetic. Her face still bore an expression of absolute bewilderment—the face of one who had died without understanding what had happened.
The shadow examined Binghua’s wound.
‘A penetrating wound.’
It was a clean perforation.
Not made by sword or spear. It had been punctured by a single condensed finger, driven through by focused inner force.
The skin around the wound was blackened, frozen solid.
Evidence that extreme cold had traveled instantaneously through the bloodstream to the heart.
‘A single finger.’
That was all it had taken to kill Binghua.
The shadow lifted Binghua’s hand and examined it. The hand that had held an Ice Needle. But the needle had never been released. It had frozen the moment she’d attempted to throw it, the Ice Needle still wedged between her fingers.
‘Frozen the instant she moved.’
The shadow examined the other bodies as well.
All the same. Corpses frozen mid-attack. Corpses frozen mid-flight. Corpses frozen with a scream half-formed on their lips.
Not one of them had managed to react. Not one had managed to escape.
The shadow understood its own capabilities. It had trained under the Lord of the Forbidden Realm for decades. As a result, few in the Northern Sea could sense its presence.
Binghua was one of them. Or rather, she ranked among the finest. Master of the Snow Maidens. The woman against whom Han Bingsamsu himself had once attempted assassination three decades ago.
‘Even Binghua died without so much as a reaction.’
Cold sweat trickled down the shadow’s spine. Had it been standing in this place instead, would it have survived?
The answer was clear.
‘It would have died.’
Without hesitation.
“My Lord.”
The shadow’s fingertips trembled slightly.
Hands that had not trembled once since mastering the ultimate mystery of Latent Shadow.
Cold vapor rose from the pool of blood beside the Snow Maiden’s corpse. The vapor brushed against the shadow’s cheek as it passed.
Like the touch of a cold blade.
A low, fractured voice echoed.
“I bring word, my Lord.”

In the deepest part of the Northern Sea.
‘It’ existed deeper than the Extreme Yin Ground, more concealed than the Ice Palace itself.
An abyss untouched by light. An absolute domain where even ice freezes. A forbidden land known to be incapable of sustaining any life.
The Forbidden Realm.
It appeared on no map of the Northern Sea. The successive rulers of the Ice Palace knew nothing of its existence. It lived only in legend, passed down as the name of ‘the deep place.’
The cavern’s entrance was sealed by an ice wall. Ice accumulated over a thousand years. A gate that only the Lord of the Forbidden Realm could open.
Strange markings were etched into the cave walls. Characters from primordial times. Not carved by human hands. The patterns shimmered faintly—a bluish light, the luminescence of death itself.
The heart of the cavern.
A vast space opened before him. The ceiling soared beyond sight, and the surrounding walls were formed entirely of ice pillars. Each pillar bore markings carved into its surface. Every pattern pointed toward a single focal point.
The Ice Jade Throne at the center.
The throne was no mere ice. It was a crystalline condensation of cold accumulated over a thousand years—cold so intense that an ordinary person would freeze to death simply by approaching it.
An old man sat upon the throne. Or rather, he was a presence barely worthy of being called old.
Nothing but bones beneath paper-thin skin. Beneath that, blood vessels and bone shone clearly visible. His eyelids hung half-closed, his lips cracked and desiccated.
Around the throne coiled a black aura. Poison Qi. A current that seeped ceaselessly from the old man’s body.
Yet his eyes alone burned with vivid life. Two blue eyes that gleamed even in the darkness. In those eyes dwelt ambition, obsession, and an endless hunger.
The Lord of Forbidden Realm.
An existence known to no one in the Northern Sea. Yet one who knows all that exists in the Northern Sea. A figure who has ruled the Northern Sea like a shadow.
“Speak.”
His voice resonated through the space. A bass note that seemed to make the entire cavern vibrate.
“The Snow Maidens brigade has been annihilated.”
Shadow’s voice echoed through the emptiness.
The Heart Sound Art. A secret transmission that connects mind to mind. The supreme technique of the Lord of Forbidden Realm alone—a martial art born from the principle of heart-to-heart understanding. A power that allowed him to converse with subordinates a thousand leagues away through thought alone.
“Binghua?”
“Dead. By a single finger.”
…….
The Lord of Forbidden Realm’s eyes twitched slightly.
“The radius?”
“More than ten paces.”
“The time?”
“A single instant.”
Silence fell. And then—
“Khkhkhk.”
The Lord of Forbidden Realm laughed. A low, sinister laugh. The entire cavern resonated with his laughter, trembling.
“What have you been doing for thirty years, Airak?”
The Lord of Forbidden Realm raised his hand slowly.
A hand with nothing but bone. Black blotches spread across the back—marks of decay.
“There exists another who can fight Bingma. Kuhkuh!”
“Bingma?”
Shadow’s voice trembled.
“Does it… truly exist?”
“It exists.”
The Lord of Forbidden Realm gazed down at his own body.
…….
No further words were necessary.
A sound like wind whistling through bone came from his skeletal frame. With each movement of rotting flesh, black spots spread another inch. Shadow averted his gaze. To look upon the master’s body for long was forbidden.
The Lord of Forbidden Realm’s decaying flesh was evidence itself. The price paid by one who fought Bingma.
“I won. But I paid the price.”
His voice lowered.
“Bingma’s Poison Qi seeped into my very bones. From that day on, this flesh began to rot. Bit by bit. Bit by bit.”
“But this one was different.”
The Lord of Forbidden Realm’s voice dropped to barely a whisper.
“Airak. This one won while keeping their body completely intact.”
“How…?”
“By the Method of Freezing and Thawing the Heart. It defies all reason.”
The old man chuckled softly.
“He froze his heart before Bingma’s Poison Qi could seep in. Then, after slaying Bingma, he thawed it again.”
Shadow said nothing.
“He deceived death itself. He fought while his heart was frozen—stopped. The dead cannot be infected by poison.”
The Lord of Forbidden Realm’s blue eyes blazed. The eyes of a ravenous beast.
“That heart.”
The skeletal hand pressed against his chest.
“A heart that beat again after experiencing death. Within that heart lies the secret of Immortality.”
…….
“I need it.”

The Lord of Forbidden Realm stared into the void.
South. The direction Airak was headed.
“Everything proceeds as planned.”
It was a low murmur.
“Mukara, Cheok Unhwi… both have played their parts.”
Shadow did not ask. Questions were not permitted. There was only obedience.
“Now only one final move remains.”
The Lord of Forbidden Realm spoke to himself.
“The wolf goes to the Central Plains. There he will be forged in the hottest fires. He must grow stronger, must become more refined. Your Ice Seal is too raw now—it serves me poorly.”
The Lord of Forbidden Realm’s lips twisted.
“Karani.”
The name escaped him like a sudden thought.
“She waited thirty years after becoming Palace Master. Forty years, fifty years—she would have waited. Always speaking his name, until the end.”
The Lord of Forbidden Realm shook his head.
“I regret it. But the wolf will not move unless she dies.”

“This is a command.”
The Lord of Forbidden Realm spoke clearly.
“Watch Airak. Do not approach him.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Your Latent Shadow technique will not suffice. Always be cautious. Maintain a constant distance. If you wish to live.”
…….
Shadow fell silent for a moment.
“Forgive me, my lord. I lack confidence.”
The Lord of Forbidden Realm’s eyebrows moved imperceptibly.
“I examined Binghua’s corpse. Until the moment of her death, Binghua could not sense Airak’s movements. She, whose senses were superior to mine. Measuring the distance between herself and Airak…”
…….
“Airak’s perception can pierce through my concealment.”
The Lord of Forbidden Realm laughed.
“Honest. Then maintain a generous distance. Watch from beyond a hundred paces.”
“I hear and obey.”
“And do not take your eyes from Cheok Unhwi.”
“Cheok Unhwi?”
“When ice and light collide….”
The Lord of Forbidden Realm left his words unfinished.
“…Airak’s heart will burn hottest.”
“I hear and obey!”
Shadow bowed low, then faded into the darkness like mist.
Silence settled once more over the Forbidden Realm.

The Lord of Forbidden Realm spoke alone into the void.
“Come, wolf.”
Blue eyes gleamed in the darkness.
“When you burn hottest, I will take that heart—that Ice Seal forged by your victory over Bingma.”
A skeletal hand moved slowly to his chest. To his own decaying heart.
“I have waited far too long. Far too long….”
His voice scattered into nothing.
The patterns on the cavern walls flickered faintly, as though breathing in rhythm with the Lord of Forbidden Realm’s heartbeat.
The intervals between pulses grew longer.
Deep within the wall came a sound of cracking ice, then silence. Frost from the floor crept slowly toward the throne, following the master’s hunger.

Danhon Valley.
After Shadow vanished, a strange mist began to rise.
At first it was thin, barely covering the ankles. But the mist grew denser. Like a living thing, it spread over the corpses and drank in what remained of their life force.
One body was swallowed by the mist. In an instant, it crumbled. Turned to powder and absorbed into the fog.
Another. Then another.
Where the mist passed, nothing remained.
Not long after, not a single corpse was left in Danhon Valley. The mist had devoured all of it—the bodies of the Snow Maidens, the spilled blood, the abandoned weapons.
As though nothing had happened.
The traces of battle were erased. Yet one thing could not be erased.
The footprints Airak left behind.
Cold footprints stretched southward in a long line. Toward the ending that the Lord of Forbidden Realm awaited.
And following those footprints, an invisible gaze descended slowly toward the south.
The Lord of Forbidden Realm would wait.
He had waited long already. He could wait a little longer.
Until the wolf burned at its hottest.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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